


Good Night

by Rainwater_Apothecary



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Multi, Swearing, because Junpei does that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 06:00:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13827987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainwater_Apothecary/pseuds/Rainwater_Apothecary
Summary: Tenmyouji Junpei just wants to freaking sleep. But no. No! He knows the Field siblings and they're all working together. So why would they let him rest.





	Good Night

**Author's Note:**

> Post-999, alternate timeline where the Fields and Junpei join Alice's team instead of breaking up and Junpei doing his stupid assassin/pining BS from ZTD. 
> 
> An AU I've been meaning to write for a hot second but finally just wrote this late last night. 
> 
> Alice is in the CIA and all four have close ties with the FBI as well.

Junpei was SO ready to make nice with this pillow. He could practically taste the painkillers doing their magic. 

A knock on the door brought a whine to his lips as he cracked open one bruised eye to look at his intruder.

“M sleepin’. Fuck off.” He tried, though it came out garbled around his pillow love. 

The blind man raised one eyebrow. 

“Oh? The unconscious don’t usually respond, Junpei.” 

Damn he still had to get used to Light speaking English. Junpei himself had taken a couple classes here and there, but he was never expecting his fellow operative’s perfectly unaccented mother tongue. Came from being bilingual, the rich bastard. 

“Now move over, Clover has her ‘friend’ over in our room and I’m actually keen on SLEEPING tonight.”

Junpei laughed as wickedly as he could through his exhaustion.

“What, Gossip Girl not your thing?” 

The look on Light’s face was priceless when he was disgusted.

“No, nor are the Kardashians or any other nonsense that keeps my little sister awake at night.” The blind man nudged Junpei’s solidly prone form. His bones were becoming one with this mattress on a spiritual level.

With a long, continuous groan, the put-upon FBI agent made the soujourn onto his back. The 180 had cost him. Dearly.

“Fuck! Now my back is cold.”

He’d lost his warm spot, dammit.

With a ‘tsk’ from the pale man, Junpei’s bed depressed at his side. He closed his eyes, appreciating the weight of his muscular friend. 

Maybe if he... he cracked one eye open to take in Light’s broad shoulders as he shelled his shirt off. 

The way Light paused mid-motion betrayed the fact that Junpei had reacted to his glorious shoulder blades. The man could suplex a man twice his height and girth, okay! He’d seen Light do WAY more physical feats than the man’s reserved demeanor implied.

The result was that each and every inch of Light Field was a sight for sore eyes. 

If you could get past the blinding, alabaster skin. Jesus, the man practically glowed in the dark! 

Junpei was yanked back to reality from the bumps and curves of the other man’s musculature by a deep sigh.

“Like what you see?”

Junpei didn’t rise to the bait. He just huffed a laugh through his nose and rolled onto his side.

“Go to sleep, skinny. We’ve got work tomorrow.” 

Light grimaced. 

Junpei shuddered as the human refrigerator lay down beside him and helped himself to his portion of the blankets. Junpei narrowed his eyes. Maybe THIS was his true mission after all. Clover was probably sound asleep in her cot while Mr. Freeze himself came in to sap Junpei’s body heat! 

...Not like that.

He was too tired tonight.

From the sounds of Light’s evening breaths, he was just as exhausted.

Junpei’s big, brown eyes blinked slower and slower as he watched his friend’s profile get fuzzy. 

They both knew they’d wake up in a hot mess of blankets, Junpei’s limbs, and their combined amount of formidably fluffy hair. Light was a snuggler. Junpei slept like it was an Olympic sport. 

They’d just gotten used to falling off the bed together. 

At least the weight of the heavier man landing on his rib cage was enough to bring Junpei back from another time when he’d fallen out of a standardized-issue bed...and hit a wood floor...while his poor body ached...

He defo preferred the aches and pains of boot camp over that of atrophy and drug-induced stupor.

Just don’t tell anyone he said that, his superior officer would decapitate him and make him clean the pantries with his entrails.

Then he’d make him run laps.

Again.

Again to the laps part, he hadn’t actually perished yet- Though morning role call sounded early enough that he may as well be.

He knew his musician just wanted a quiet corner of the world to read and compose music, and all he wanted was a decent ham sandwich and to sleep for a week...maybe a beer or two. But duty called, in all its tinny, bugley glory. Him and Light were going to be psychic soldiers, first in line to keep an eye on the morphogenic field. 

The way the new outfit worked was to take Receivers like Light and Junpei and ‘hook them up’ to a steady feed of physic information. They’d subconsciously filter things out unless something Big happened. Capital ‘B’.

Clover and the handful of Transmitters Alice’s wing of the Agency had managed to gather would keep their Receivers ‘connected’. They could put things into the field, but their Receivers could only remove so much. They could only remove what their Transmitters had inserted into the field, to be precise. 

By having Clover tie her friends into the field with a steady ‘Transmission’, the duo could keep a proverbial ear out for the field.

It all went over Junpei’s head, but they were training their entire beings to being operatives for this mission. Never again would someone be made a slave to the collective subconsciousness. 

Well, no one but them.

If it prevented another incident like 9 years ago... then what choice did they have?

Besides, Junpei liked getting ripped. 

And being needed.

Being needed was nice. 

So he would sleep like a goddamn rock, wake up in the arms of his best friend, then run himself ragged in the California sun. When you put it like that, it wasn’t really a bad gig. 

He could live without the stabbing headaches and the electrodes, but he had to stay optimistic that all this would get easier once the Project got its flight feathers. It was still in the early stages; its operatives still had to train with other departments. Again, not a bad thing. Alice had been quick to point out that they had to be prepared to use any excuse necessary to protect the identity of what their branch was really for, so why not a military installment? Boot camp it was.

Another day of coughing dust by day and blood by night. 

Akane Kurashiki wouldn’t get away again. 

Junpei would stop her barehanded if need be. 

As would Clover, Light, Ennea, Alice, etc. 

Their minds were their own and from now on they would access the field by CHOICE. 

Alice had given them the power of consent, and they had taken it. 

The power in being the author of his own story instead of a character being narrated still caught Junpei by surprise. It thrummed in his veins and made him laugh aloud at sunsets and the way Light’s eyes glinted when he opened them. Clover’s hair tickling his nose and the dog barking hoarsely. 

All of these sensations he had control over. He could walk away, close his eyes, sleep... Fuck he’d even been learning how to meditate! Go figure! Alice didn’t fuck around; she knew exactly what the survivors needed and she gave it to them.

She gave them their power to choose. 

She gave them back the power of consent. 

What they did with it was their prerogative, but Junpei was going to take his freedom and run. Haul ass through the green grass and laugh at the Hollywood sign in disbelief. He was going to ruffle Light’s hair until the man flipped him over one shoulder. He was gonna pass out in random places and wake up to discover that the Field siblings had painted his nails. He was going to spend his hefty government check at hot topic on sweat bands and band shirts.

He was gonna live, and he was gonna love every second of it. 

 

...At least he hoped he was. He always dreaded the idea that this was all just a dream and that he’d wake up again on that damn ship and discover he had to complete the puzzles one more time. One more time.  
One more time.

He’d never be free from the shadow of the bracelet, no matter how far he ran or how loudly he cackled.

What if this was just another [Bad End] and he hadn’t reached the grueling, nauseating punch-line yet?

 

Cold flesh bounced off his collar bone and Junpei awoke shaking and sweating. His boyfriend kissed him down from the dark thoughts that haunted him between psychic foggings. 

If this was all a big wind-up to a Bad End, then the universe could shove it. Junpei was trying.

He was trying so, so hard. 

That had to count for something, right?

Just trying was good enough, wasn’t it?

Would it make the nightmares go away if he was just a good enough agent/friend/lover/person?

Would it ever make HER go away?

It was always Kanny that had needed Jumpy, not the other way around. 

He could stop now, right? She’d let him go if he just tried...hard enough...God, he hoped his best would be good enough.

For once.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes that was a pantry joke because gallows' humor.


End file.
